A RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE VEGAN BACON SALT, AND FOODIE TRIP TO PORTLAND, PART 4: DINING AT THE BLOSSOMING LOTUS

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Homemade Bacon Salt in olive oil

At the Culinary Expo at the IACP Annual Conference in Portland, we tasted a delicious gourmet BBQ "Bacon Salt". Now, I know that there is a bacon-mania going on out there (you can even buy bacon chocolate bars at Whole Foods-- yuck!), but, being vegan, I haven't paid too much attention. So, it seems that bacon salt has been around for a while and I just never noticed! All the the bacon salt I have seen on the Internet is vegetarian-- it either just contains the flavorings for bacon (liquid smoke, brown sugar, etc.), or it contains some soy bacon bits, so it's fine for vegans. But, it's expensive and I would have to order it by mail, so I thought I'd have a go at making my own homemade variety. I knew that it would not be as complex as the expensive variety we tried at the Expo (I didn't have any smoked dried tomatoes, or smoked black pepper on hand!), but I had enough essential ingredients that I was confident I could make something really tasty. It took a little tasting and re-blending, but it turned out really well!

The amazing thing to me was that I started with 1/3 cup of smoked salt, and ended up with 1 1/2 cups of Bacon Salt!Consequently, the sodium content of this condiment is much, much lower than table salt-- 1 teaspoon contains 90.2 g. of sodium; 1 teaspoon of table salt contains 1880 g of sodium!

Here are some uses for Bacon Salt: on popcorn and homemade oven-fries; seitan steaks; in BBQ sauces; in marinades for seitan TVP and tofu; in dips, spreads, and vegan mayonnaise; in baked beans; in salad dressings and on salads; as a seasoning in homemade seitan products; in mashed potatoes; on scrambled tofu; in eggless egg salad (made with tofu); roll tofu pieces in it and pan-fry; mix with olive oil for a French bread dip; on potatoes; in potato salad; on or in veggie burgers; on a grilled (vegan) cheese sandwich; on steamed or grilled or roasted veggies; on pasta with a thin creamy sauce (a sort of vegan carbonara); on grits; in vegan mac'n'cheeze; on many types of sandwiches; in soups (or on them); on homemade potato crisps (chips) or other veggie crisps-- kale chips, maybe?-- I'm sure that's just the beginning!

This stuff is addictive and the uses are endless (see above)! It is low in sodium, as well--1 teaspoon contains 90.2 g. of sodium; 1 teaspoon of table salt contains 1880 g of sodium!

NOTE: Good smoked salt is expensive, but you only need 1/3 of a cup for this recipe, and it makes alot! You can make your own smoked salt if you have a stove-top smoker-- I'm going to try this soon and I'll report on it! I'm also going to try making my own bacon bits, and, if I'm satisfied, I'll post those as well.

Saltworks Salish Alderwood Smoked Salt, "fine grain"

Ingredients:1/3 cup smoked salt of your choice (I used "fine grain" Saltworks Salish Alderwood Smoked Salt)(IMPORTANT NOTE: The texture of this salt is a bit like kosher salt--see the photo above; so, if you use a granulated salt, you need to use less, and if you use a coarse crystal salt you need to use more-- see photo below.)

NOTE: If you want the salt to be a little more coarse, mix all of the ingredients EXCEPT the salt in the blender or VitaMix first. When they are powdery, add the salt and whiz until it's the texture you want.

I just mixed everything in the DRY VitaMix (or use a good blender) and blended on high, stopping now and then to stir everything up (because it tends to clump together), and then blending again. When I couldn't feel any tomato bits anymore, I stopped. I scraped the mixture into a dry bowl and mixed it with a spoon to fluff it up. Then I scooped it into a dry 1-pint canning jar with a tight lid.You can put some in a shaker-jar for table use.

***********************************************PART 4 OF MY FOODIE TRIP TO PORTLAND: DINNER AT THE BLOSSOMING LOTUS

Friday night, as I mentioned before, I went to dinner with Kittee and Julie to The Blossoming Lotus, a very popular vegan restaurant in Portland (there is a sister restaurant in Kauai). It has a lovely, casual atmosphere and the staff was very friendly.

I had the Four Cheese Lasagna, which contains no cheese! They make their own! (Layers of fresh seasonal vegetable marinara, semolina noodles, herbed tofu ricotta, roasted zucchini & almond mozzarella, and sesame-nutritional yeast parmesan, served on a bed of steamed kale, topped with lemon-basil cashew cream)

Here are some close-ups of the interior:

It was very good and very filling-- I couldn't finish it and took the rest home!

We regrettably passed on dessert and retired to a bench on the street to chat, meeting some Portland interesting characters as well, including a lovely little Pomeranian dog!

Kittee and Julie, replete with a yummy dinner, on the bench outside the Blossoming Lotus

Then Julie and I had a hunt on foot for her car (we couldn't remember where we had parked it!), were rescued by Kittee, who drove us around until we found it, and, after that adventure, we headed home to bed!

Tomorrow I'll report on a bread workshop with Peter Reinhart andNancy Baggett, the Willamette Food Cart Festival, the Farmers' Market, and a visit to Whole foods (Saturday was a busy day!).